Architectural

Chroma-Q News

National Theatre of Scotland Embraces LED with Chroma-Q Color Force

02/05/2012

The National Theatre of Scotland (NTS) have recently invested in seven Chroma-Q Color Force™ 48” / 1.2m LED battens to provide wash lighting effects for their various stage productions, including “Knives in Hens” and “An Appointment with the Wicker Man”.

The Glasgow based theatre received a grant from the Wolfson Foundation to replace their existing cyc lights with energy-efficient LED versions. They wanted a high quality, powerful and easy to set up LED lighting solution.

Head of Lighting, Paul Claydon and Technical Manager, Niall Black conducted extensive research before inviting four leading LED brands to do a shootout at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow. Also attending the shootout were a number of LDs with whom NTS work with.

“As soon as the Color Force battens were switched on, to us they absolutely blew all the other products away, especially in terms of their intensity and quality of light” states Paul, adding that it was “a bit of a moment!”

“It was a collective decision” recounts Paul; NTS work with at least 12 different LDs every year, so it was “Important to invest in a batten that would keep all our LDs happy.”

Apart from the remarkable 8,000 lumens power of the Color Force, other features impressing everyone included the smooth washing effect, homogenised lightsource and lack of hotspots. Collectively, everyone liked the quality of colours, and was very impressed with the batten’s ability to produce a high-quality selection of the entire colour spectrum, including a good white - an area where some LED fixtures are known to struggle.

The ultra-bright Color Force LED batten range has a custom developed lens system, ensuring smooth and even coverage across large areas, easily washing up to eight metres. The advanced ColorSure™ RGBA colour and control management technologies offer a massive enhanced colour palette, colour consistency, a high CRI of 92 and theatrical grade dimming - making the fixtures ideal for multiple types of applications, ranging from subtle hues for theatre and opera lighting to vibrant effects for live events.

The first production for the new units was "Knives in Hens", where they were used to light an upstage cyc made from back projection screen material. They were rigged on floor based trussing around which the back projection screen was wrapped.

Paul explains, “They are absolutely perfect for venues challenged for depth and space”, a circumstance in which NTS often find themselves working, he adds that “They are an excellent lighting solution which will be in constant use.”

Other productions that have used the Color Force battens have been, "The Wheel" at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh, and “The Missing” at The Tramway in Glasgow.